In Memory of Andrew Clarke, AKA Phil Factor
One of the parts of getting older that really sucks is I seem to attend more funerals than weddings. It’s a sad fact of file, and this was one...
2025-09-15
576 reads
Leading Through the Noise: Harnessing Data in the Age of Digital Overload
The New Leadership Frontier In today’s digital landscape, leaders are no longer just visionaries. They are navigators of complexity, interpreters of signals, and stewards of trust. Technology has transformed...
2025-09-15
71 reads
The “Kill” Command: What to Consider Before Stopping a SQL Server Process
Whether you’re troubleshooting on-premises SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, Managed Instance, or Amazon RDS, you will eventually encounter a “lead blocker”—that one high-cost, long-running session holding every other process...
2025-09-12
74 reads
A New Word: Anderance
anderance – n. the awareness that your partner perceives the relationship from a totally different angle than you – spending years looking at a different face across the table,...
2025-09-12
512 reads
Troubleshooting SQL Server – Starting with the Error Log
We’ve all been there. Someone walks up and asks, “Is SQL Server having issues?” What’s your first move? For me, it starts with the SQL Server Error log. I...
2025-10-03 (first published: 2025-09-11)
582 reads
From OLTP to Analytics: Bridging the Gap with Modern SQL Architectures
In the beginning, there was OLTP – Online Transaction Processing. Fast, reliable, and ruthlessly efficient, OLTP systems were the workhorses of enterprise data. They handled the daily grind: purchases,...
2025-10-08 (first published: 2025-09-11)
312 reads
Free Online Sessions – Building the €100 DWH and Indexing for Dummies
I’m giving two online sessions soon on virtual events that are free to attend. The first one is at Retro Data (20th of September), a new virtual conference focusing...
2025-09-12 (first published: 2025-09-11)
392 reads
Solving SQL Server Mysteries with a Whole Gang of Sleuths -Scooby Dooing Episode 4
One thing I’ve always loved about the Scooby-Doo cartoon is that he never solved a mystery alone. Scooby and Shaggy could sniff out a clue between snacks, but it...
2025-10-03 (first published: 2025-09-10)
236 reads
SQL Server Availability Groups
Flexibility and Scale at the Database Level When SQL Server 2012 introduced Availability Groups (AGs), they changed the HA/DR game. Unlike Failover Cluster Instances (FCIs), which protect the whole...
2025-09-10
32 reads
Modify Power BI page visibility and active status with Semantic Link Labs
Setting page visibility and the active page are often overlooked last steps when publishing a Power BI report. It’s easy to forget the active page since it’s just set...
2025-10-01 (first published: 2025-09-09)
178 reads
Blogs
Measuring RAG Solutions: Are We Retrieving the Right Information?
A RAG pipeline that answers questions in the demo is not the same thing...
Advice I Like: Lots of Ideas
By Steve Jones
“A multitude of bad ideas is necessary for one good idea” – from Excellent...
Building a DBA Agent for Your SQL Server Estate with MCP
Yesterday I gave a talk for MSSQLTips called “Building a DBA Agent for Your...
Forums
Practical SQL Server Development Tips for Better Database Projects
Working with SQL Server 2022 can be a great learning experience, but development tasks...
Looking for New Blood
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Looking for New Blood
Server-Level Row Counts for Tables and Views
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Server-Level Row Counts for Tables...
Question of the Day
Hyperscale Replicas I
What types of secondary replicas are available for the Azure SQL Database Hyperscale edition?
See possible answers